Abstract: By analyzing the aromatic and harmful components during primary processing, including vacuum conditioning (Step 1), loosening and conditioning (Step 2), ordering (Step 3) and cut tobacco drying (Step 4) along with sensory evaluation, the quality change of reconstituted tobacco was investigated. The results showed that: 1) the content of aromatic components reduced gradually during Steps 1-3, and increased during Step 4, the contents of important aromatic components, megastigmatrienone, neophytadiene and β-damascone increased obviously during Step 4;2) the content of PAHs in mainstream cigarette smoke changed little, NNK content reduced obviously during Step 4, the contents of the other nitrosamines in mainstream smoke changed a little;3) the routine analytes in cigarette smoke changed little during the processing;4) sensory quality was affected in different ways, it was improved obviously by Step 4 with better balance and smoothness, richer aroma and enhanced sweet note.